99 Homes

Set amidst the 2008 housing market bubble’s bursting catastrophe, acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani’s (Chop Shop, Goodbye Solo), 99 HOMES tells the story of an unemployed construction worker (Andrew Garfield) who joins an unscrupulous realtor (Michael Shannon) in the dirty business of foreclosing on the disenfranchised. With employment opportunities drying up as a result of the US economy’s implosion, construction worker Dennis Nash (Garfield) has fallen disastrously behind in his mortgage payments. Along with his mother (Laura Dern), he is evicted from his family house by local realtor Rick Carver (Shannon) — a slick, hard-nosed operator who has found a lucrative calling in these lean times as an axeman for the banks. Finding temporary housing in a motel, Dennis desperately scrambles to keep even this roof over his family’s heads. But soon he finds Carver on his doorstep once again — this time with an offer of a job, and a promise to help Dennis reclaim his family home. Unable to resist, Dennis enters a world of shady transactions and charged moral ambiguity, where the losses of the many are the gains of a few. Garfield shines in his nuanced portrayal of a moral man in an immoral world, while Shannon vividly illustrates the visceral need underlying Carver’s manic drive to succeed, giving dimension and depth to a cold and calculating man. Enthralling, provocative, and timely, 99 HOMES is not to be missed.